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Blog

Nonprofit Insurance Program

December 09, 2012

The process of writing a grant is both one of the most important and one of the most daunting tasks that anyone who runs or works for a nonprofit organization will have to undertake. Very often the crucial initiatives of your organization, if not the very existence of your organization itself, can depend on the approval or rejection of your grant application. Thus the grant must be written not only with the utmost attention to detail and backed by expert knowledge and voluminous research, but it much also be written with a skill and style that will make it stand out to those in an approval capacity.

There is one other aspect to the grant writing process that many people at nonprofits tend to overlook all too often, and they so at the great potential peril of their organizations: accidents and eventualities. Without the potential for bad things to happen even at places driven by good intentions, you may well win a grant only to see yourself paying out all the funds acquired to some type of claim or suit. Without proper insurance in place to protect your organization from punitive action in the case of any number of incidentals, you are essentially building a well-intentioned but at-risk house of cards.

Nonprofit organizations have slightly different business models and revenue streams than traditional for-profit companies, which much goes without saying. But it also literally often goes without saying that they still need to plan ahead and have a trusted insurance provider backing their organization should a situation ever arise in which they are being sued or threatened with a claim. There is no cynicism in building in funding for the purchase and retention of insurance coverage into your initial grant proposal — quite the opposite, in fact: a potential dispenser of grant funds will very likely see the inclusion of such in budget proposals as indicative if sound long term planning and a responsible management structure, making your organization more likely to get its grant approved and funded.

Make sure when you are writing a grant proposal that you consult legal and accounting specialists and not only experts in your specific field of operations, but also with experts from the insurance industry. They just may be able to help you get your grant approved and will certainly be useful down the line if you ever need to call on them for protection and assistance.